Tha Real U
Tha Real U (also known as Real Mixwell) is a Weskus Conscious, Commercial and Christian Hip Hop underground recording artist, blogger, web developer, promoter, student-Christian leader, label manager and founder of Shaloma Muzik. He is also the founder and publicist of Simply Real South Africa and has previous been actively involved in the formation of SWGCTY and the I Am West Coast Hip Hop initiative, until becoming defunct upon resignation in November 2014. In 2015, Tha Real U was the Operations Manager of Korporate Kulture EEP and later become a branch executive committee member of the Students' Christian Organisation. In addition to this, Tha Real U is the executive blogger of Real You Society and was previously a brand ambassador for Music Generation Apparel. __TOC__ =Early Life= Tha Real U was born in Pretoria, South Africa. Up until the age of seven he grew up in a suburban area of Sliverton as noted in his song 'November 12 Boy'. He then relocated to Eersterust, where he experienced various societal, race and cultural differences, although he was not critically subject to any of these. He spent most of his time at home, where he was able to utilize his creative skills. At the age of ten, Real U began aspiring to work with music and claimed the moniker "Lil' K-Mario" as his future stage name. However he only successfully made an attempt to do so with the formation of Radio Shawty. By thirteen he experimented with web developments, and later learned how to use this to his advantage by formation of two Internet radio stations, both which later became defunct due to managerial problems. It was through these stations that Real U established himself as an online radio DJ. He then began to take an interest in House music and worked on various mixtapes under the moniker "DJ Real U", this being the first time the name was used, and by 2011 it had grown to popularity. In December 2009, after Real U's completion of Grade 9, he would then relocate for a third and final time to the coastal town of St Helena Bay in the Western Cape. Whilst living there, he continued to work on digital music projects and began releasing his bootleg remixes on Soundcloud and YouTube. Through this he adopted another moniker, "Real Mixwell", initially intended to be a replacement for his previous one however he soon reverted back to "Real U" as the name had already become familiar ta high school. During 2011, Real U then discovered Christian Hip Hop and began to take an interest in the genre. Later in 2012, he would renounce his DJ title and redevelop his trusted moniker to "Tha Real U". This was to introduce his new approach to music as a Hip Hop artist. Through this he began the formation of Shaloma Muzik, a brand name strategically created to tag songs with. It would later become popular by association, and rose to acknowledgement after the release of Long Nights, That I'm Dreaming and Underground Kings, three of Real U's breakthrough releases into the West Coast Hip Hop community and local underground scene. = Breakthrough = Real U's underground breakthrough as a Hip-Hop artist was reached with the release of his second exclusive single, Long Nights which was released on October 15, 2012. The song became his first collaborative work and featured Twistyle Muzik artist, EM-K along with his former label-mate Jempas. The song was promoted to various audiences within the West Coast community, and gained Real U recognition as a Hip-Hop artist, through support from both colleagues and his sister label, Twistyle Muzik. Real U then obtained his first 100 download milestone after two weeks of release, with the release of That I'm Dreaming featuring Jempas, on November 24, 2012. The song was well received on Social Media and added to Real U's reputation as an emerging artist. A music video for the song was later released on March 1, 2013. On December 18, 2012, Real U's fifth exclusive single, Underground Kings was released. The song features Keagan Holland from Johannesburg rap group, UNiQUE and was praised for it's long-distance collaborative efforts, a first for the West Coast Hip-Hop scene. The song reached critical acclaim as it peaked the Soundcloud Download Limit (100 download milestone), after 24 hours of premier, making it the first record holder for "Most Downloaded Song In 24 Hours" within the West Coast Hip-Hop scene. = Initiatives = 2009 - 2010: Internet Radio In 2009, Tha Real U founded the first of his uplifting arts initiatives, namely Radio Shawty, an Internet Radio Station broadcasted via Virtual DJ. In December 2009, Radio Shawty was transferred to new owners, Khalil and Ryan Issacs, however failure to maintain it led to it later becoming defunct. This rose to the appeal by former Radio Shawty radio jocks for a new broadcasting service, which in late 2010 saw Sbaweezy, DJ Sitha and Real U co-found Touch Radio with Tha Real U serving as technical director. Touch Radio later ceased to exist due to various reasons despite several efforts, however it's blog, later renamed as Startouch Magazine, continued to function and provided regular news updates on the musical journey of it's founders. 2011 - 2012: Mobile Website & Hip-Hop In mid-2011, Tha Real U founded mobile website, SWGCTY - featuring Twistyle Muzik works along with that of himself and fellow underground musicians. This was seen as a niche in the local market during the rise of BlackBerry Mobile devices and BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) which granted mobile users unlimited Internet access for a monthly-fee. SWGCTY later became the prime portal for Weskus Hip Hop music - digitally distributing and publishing works (as Cape Vinyal Beatz) for artists who struggled to receive internet downloads or local recognition. This lead to the formation of the I Am West Coast Hip Hop initiative, which Real U then co-founded with Big Twist in 2012. The 'I Am West Coast Hip-Hop' initiative saw the rise of Lyrics and Truth, a media blogsite reporting on the local music scene, independently run by Tha Real U and in itself strived towards building a collective Hip-Hop community in the South African West Coast region, along with public awareness to local artistry. In November 2014, Tha Real U resigned from the 'I Am West Coast Initiative' after much inactivity due to non-compliance by a number productions schemes. Tha Real U would later work on establishing WikiCity, as a division of SWGCTY - a union that would be coined as The Real Brands. SWGCTY would later became defunct upon Real U's departure for the "I Am West Coast Hip-Hop" initiative. 2012 - 2014: Shaloma Muzik In 2012, Tha Real U founded Shaloma Muzik Recordings, as Shaloma Muzik Underground Recording Brand, a music production scheme for local musicians. Tha Real U however remained as the only artist affiliated to the brand during it's first year, producing collaborative works with Def Trip, Em-K, Keagan Holland and Jempas - having only officially added Jempas as it's second affiliate in 2013. In 2014, Shaloma Muzik would officially reestablish itself as a record label, upon the affiliation of Jay King, Khanyi Mjodo and Lil Stewy. 2015: Real You Society, Korporate Kulture & Simply Real In January 2015, Tha Real U founded Real You Society (RYS), a digital youth movement aspiring to promote authenticity and conscious thought. This was formed by rebranded his personal blog, founded the previous year and creating content which represents a Christian worldview relative the psychological challenges of both adolescent and post-adolescent individuals. The movement was supported by Anesu who would become a guest blogger, along with various other parties. In March 2015, talks between Real U and Stevinhio Wanda began to create a Cape Town Hip-Hop project. Wanda was intrigued by Real U's project management skills and his drive to uplift the local Hip-Hop community on the West Coast. This led to the formation of Korporate Kulture EEP, co-founded by Music Generation Apparel owners Boss along with Wanda, Chuq from the The Chuqban, Mfundo Mbali representing various initiatives, Dan The Man of DanTheMan Productions and Thami of Thoroughfare Memories. Real U was allocated the position of "Operations Manager", second in-command to Wanda who held the position of CEO. In mid-2015, Korporate Kulture would go onto establishing its own sub-brand and virtual client, Simply Real South Africa - a media hub representing local artistry. Simply Real was founded with two functions, it's media and it's products, both elements Korporate Kulture saw useful to help embrace and engage society into the local Hip-Hop culture. Simply Real thus went on to launch it's first and only product, the Real Cup. Having acquired Lyrics & Truth, Simply Real went onto re-branding the blogsite as On Real Magazine but this was later changed into the name it now holds, in order to eradicate confusion.. By late 2015, Korporate Kulture suffered various disputes causing much of it's management to be fired. = Rivalry = In October 2012, Saldanha Bay rap duo, Ill Scripts debuted with Ons Is Bevok, a diss song targeted at fellow St Helena Bay rapper and Wolf Pact artist, Major. The song followed the release of Shaloma Muzik's breakthrough with Tha Real U's Long Nights, and was judged in comparison as both groups were considered equally newcomers in West Coast Hip-Hop scene. In January 2013, Shaloma Muzik would release it's own diss record in response to the Ill Scripts release. "Lord Have Mercy" targeted Ill Scripts in Shaloma's hope to achieve Hip-Hop redemption. The song collectively featured Jempas & Tha Real U and was exclusively released on mobile-website SWGCTY. rivalry was later explained on community-blogsite Startouch Magazine. According to the blogsite, Lord Have Mercy was interlinked to Tha Real U's previous release Underground Kings. The scheme felt unsatisfied at the cocky-attitudes depicted by Scripts and therefore challenged them with a diss record of their own. This resulted in a mild-controversy within the West Coast Hip-Hop community resulting in artists such as Twistyle Muzik's General to speak out against the state of the genre. In an interview with Startouch Magazine, Ill Scripts member INSVN mentioned that the initial diss record of "St Helena Bay-Saldanha Bay Rap Rivalry" was recorded out of fun, however to their surprise the issue was not being taken lightly. Ill Scripts would later transform their style of music with their sophomore releases in 2013. In 2014, as a result of Ill Scripts rise in the Saldanha-Bay region, Jempas resigned from Shaloma Muzik to join it's rivals. The trio between Junio A!, INSVN and Jempas however was short-lived, as Jempas later decided to departure from the group as well. = Discography = Tha Real U's discography currently consists of fifteen singles, eleven which are exclusive singles, four special releases and one mixtape. Out of these fourteen, ten have been made available on both Soundcloud and HotNewHipHop, nine on ReverbNation, seven on KasiMp3 and twelve on Soundclick. Apart from these websites, Tha Real U's releases have also been noted to appear on Wapload's Zamob and WapTrick, and additionally selective songs are available elsewhere on the net. Exclusive Singles 2014: * Only You (Traitor) (Released February 1st, 2014) 2013: * November 12 Boy (Released November 12, 2013) * Church In The Wild (Released October 6, 2013) * Take Me Away (Released August 30, 2013) * Good Friday (Released April 11, 2013) * SFTB (Started From The Bottom) (Released April 2, 2013) 2012: * Underground Kings (Released December 18, 2012) * That I'm Dreaming (Released November 24, 2012) * November 28 Girl (Released November 6, 2012) * Long Nights (Released October 14, 2012) * I'm Ready (YOLO Controversy) (Released October 7, 2012) Special Releases The following releases were specially released by Shaloma Muzik, as part of their Shaloma Friday series: * Take Care (Matric 2012 Tribute) (Released June 28, 2014) * Illest (Syndrome) (Released June 21, 2014) * Somewhere New (Teenage Struggle) (Released June 14, 2014) * EWEWU (Released June 7, 2014) Collaborations * Lord Have Mercy, collective single with Jempas (Released January, 2013) * Ransom by Jempas (Released August 2, 2013) * #InstaPR2014 (Insta PR Song) by Various Artists (Released May 10, 2014) * Break Free by Lil Stewy, alongside The Essence (Released November 28, 2014) =Music Videos= That I'm Dreaming is Tha Real U's first music video. It was released March 1st, 2013 and was shot and directed by himself under the name Real U Productions. Other than this, Tha Real U directed and featured in Jempas's Ransom music video, released on August 3, 2013. =See Also= * Shaloma Muzik * Big Twist